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Re: The JDPNYY Top 5 WD -- Question 16

Sullivan's Travels is the best movie of the bunch, but it’s not as purely funny.

I agree with that. Though Veronica Lake giving a handjob to her hairbrush was pretty amazing. Sturges was always good at slipping stuff past the Production Code-era censors (Judy Kockenlocker?).

Due to the success of Sullivan's Travels it was naturally assumed that Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake would be paired again onscreen but it never happened. That was apparently McCrea's choice. He is quoted, in a line that sounds like something his Sullivan character would say, "Life is too short to work with Veronica Lake more than once."

Re: The JDPNYY Top 5 WD -- Question 16

Just a philosophical thought, when I rank comedies I tend to just go for movies I thought were the funniest. I see rankings for two movies on here--My Cousin Vinny and The Big Lebowski--that were superior movies but not intensely funny, despite some very funny moments. I certainly liked both more than many of my top 5, but for reasons like dramatic content, interesting characters, acting performances, etc.

I guess I just don't know how to rank comedies.

"Deep to left! Yastrzemski will not get it! It's a home run! A three-run homer by Bucky Dent! And the Yankees now lead by a score of 3-2!" - New York Yankees announcer Bill White (October 2, 1978)

Just a philosophical thought, when I rank comedies I tend to just go for movies I thought were the funniest. I see rankings for two movies on here--My Cousin Vinny and The Big Lebowski--that were superior movies but not intensely funny, despite some very funny moments. I certainly liked both more than many of my top 5, but for reasons like dramatic content, interesting characters, acting performances, etc.

I guess I just don't know how to rank comedies.

I think My Cousin Vinny is hilarious. It may not produce belly-laughs on the order of the Marx Brothers, but itís consistently funny throughout - no having to sit through Harpo's instrumental solo. Plus, in addition to contributing "These two yutes" to the language, it gave us the extremely useful expression, "dead-on balls accurate." Itís an industry term.

Re: The JDPNYY Top 5 WD -- Question 16

Originally Posted by theDurk

Just a philosophical thought, when I rank comedies I tend to just go for movies I thought were the funniest. I see rankings for two movies on here--My Cousin Vinny and The Big Lebowski--that were superior movies but not intensely funny, despite some very funny moments. I certainly liked both more than many of my top 5, but for reasons like dramatic content, interesting characters, acting performances, etc.

I guess I just don't know how to rank comedies.

I don't think you're wrong.

My logic when I rank movies usually goes by rewatchability. In the example you give with The Big Lebowski, sure it isn't loaded with joke after joke like say Pineapple Express, but I can watch Lebowski over and over again where watching Pineapple Express was good for the one time I saw it.